William Von Brincken Movies

Eric Ambler's intriguing novel Uncommon Danger is brought down to a Republic serial level in Warner Bros.' Background to Danger. George Raft, who always seems miscast, plays an American undercover intelligence agent operating in Turkey. Sultry Osa Massen passes on some valuable secret papers to Raft just before she is killed. Our Hero then finds himself at the mercy of enemy agent Sidney Greenstreet, who knows that the papers contain Nazi plans to invade Turkey. Despite several brutal beatings, Raft and his cohorts Peter Lorre (a good guy for a change) and Brenda Marshall turn the tables on Greenstreet. Background to Danger was the first of many Warner Bros. follow-ups to the studio's megahit Casablanca; it's also the film wherein the prankish Peter Lorre stole George Raft's hat between takes--an affront that rankled the touchy Raft to his dying day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though technically a Republic "B", the 58-minute The Purple V has glossy production values commensurate to a top-of-the-bill A picture. German expatriate Fritz Kortner plays the largest role, as an anti-Nazi schoolmaster who helps a downed American flyer (John Archer) reached Allied lines with vital war information. As usual, the Nazis are incredibly stupid and lead-footed, enabling the flyer to accomplish his mission. Featured in the cast is Peter Lawford in one of his first major roles of the 1940s (contrary to popular belief, Lawford was not "discovered" in this film, having made his American screen debut in 1938's Lord Jeff). The only drawback to the film is the lackluster performance by leading lady Mary McLeod. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

PRC's A Yank in Libya is distinguished by some of the oldest, grainiest stock footage ever seen in a mid-1940s film. Once past this aesthetic obstacle, however, the film isn't too bad. Walter Woolf King heads the cast as American war correspondent Mike Malone, on assignment in a papier-mache facsimile of Libya. Malone helps to squash a Nazi scheme to attack a British garrison, earning the everlasting gratitude of heroine Nancy Brooks (Joan Woodbury) and British consol Herbert Forbes (H. B. Warner). Reasonably amusing comedy relief is provided by radio dialectician Parkayarkus, aka Harry Einstein (the father of present-day comic actors Albert Brooks and Bob Einstein). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Miss V From Moscow was singled out by B-film historian Don Miller as "one of the worst movies ever made by any standards, certainly the worst movie of its year." Seen today, the film seems to be simply another mediocre wartime meller from the cramped studios of PRC. Lola Lane plays Soviet secret agent Vera Marova, who bears a striking resemblance to a Nazi spy. Taking advantage of this, she confounds the German high command in occupied Paris, and also comes to the rescue of downed American flyer Steve Worth (Howard Banks). Much of the dialogue is hilariously inept (perhaps intentionally so), with some of the biggest yocks provided by Noel Madison as a would-be Goebbels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A hunter finds himself in a world of danger when he decides to stalk Adolf Hitler in this taut WWII thriller. Capt. Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is an expert big-game hunter from England. While hunting in Bavaria, he happens upon Hitler's Berchtesgaden estate and spots the Fuhrer; he has his rifle in tow, and he toys with the idea of firing at the dictator, even raising the unloaded weapon, putting Hitler in the crosshairs, and pulling the trigger to make the gun click. Unfortunately, this draws the attention of Maj. Quive-Smith (George Sanders), a Gestapo leader assigned to guard the Führer, who promptly apprehends Thorndike, drags him off and attempts to force him to sign a confession. When he refuses, he's brutally beaten and dumped into a hole in the woods, and must climb out and make his way to safety, by hiding as a stowaway on a Danish steamer. The poor fellow then runs afoul of the menacing Mr. Jones (John Carradine), who steals his passport and identity. By the time Thorndike returns to London, the hunter has become the hunted, with Gestapo agents combing the streets looking for the would-be assassin. Thorndike finds an unlikely ally in Jerry (Joan Bennett), a seamstress and sometimes streetwalker who takes him in and helps him hide from the German forces closing in around him. And meanwhile, he must still contend with teh nefarious doings of Mr. Jones Man Hunt was directed by Fritz Lang, the great German director who fled to Paris in 1933 rather than accept a commission from Joseph Goebbels to make Nazi propaganda films. He came to America the following year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Underground is an average Warner Bros. suspenser, given a boost by its unrelenting portrayal of Nazis as verminous scum--several months before America's entry into World War II. Jeffrey Lynn plays an impressionable young European who is intoxicated by the "glories" of National Socialism. Lynn's brother, Philip Dorn, is on the opposite side of the fence as an announcer for an underground Resistance radio station. At first scornful of his brother's activities, Lynn soon learns that Hitler isn't the saint he believed him to be--especially after several of his friends are liquidated by the Gestapo. Lynn belatedly joins his brother's cause and, at the cost of his own life, helps the Resistance thwart a band of fifth columnists. Underground is a solid piece of film craftsmanship, lacking only the big star names that would have made it a box-office hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Hidden Enemy concerns the efforts of a group of foreign spies to get their mitts on an experimental super-metal developed by scientist McGregor (George Cleveland). Astonishingly, neither McGregor nor his newspaper-reporter son Bill (Warren Hull) are aware of the spies' activities until the film is half over. Meanwhile, an exotic number named Sonia (Kay Linaker) poses as a rival reporter while trying to obtain McGregor's metal formula for mysterious reasons of her own. In keeping with Hollywood's policy of pre-war neutrality, the nationalities of the villains in Hidden Enemy are unidentified, though their accents are decidedly Germanic and Italian in nature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sequel to Grand National's 1938 actioner Cipher Bureau once again stars Leon Ames as bureau head Major Philip Waring. In case you're wondering, the Cipher Bureau is a government agency in charge of decoding enemy messages. Teamed with agent Helen Lane (Charlotte Wynters), Major Waring is dispatched to the Panama Canal. Here the two operatives discover that an Oriental spy ring (no nationalities, please: this is still 1939) is stealing vital secrets concerning the Canal. Almost as dangerous as the spies is Abner Biberman in the role of a turncoat bureau agent. The very brief "Cipher Bureau" series was created by Arthur Hoerl and Monroe Sheff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A federal agent and a petty Naval officer are both investigating the theft of top-secret defense plans. Since neither one is aware that the other is working on the case, each considers the other to be the prime suspect. They end up getting romantic and catching the real spies. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

This typically wild-and-wooly entry in Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" series gets under way when stiff-upper-lip Scotland Yard inspector Nielsen is kidnapped by master criminal Richard Lane (J. Carroll Naish). Ensconsed in his lavish jungle hideout somewhere in Africa, Lane wines and dines his captive as a prelude for his intended revenge against the good Inspector. As Bulldog Drummond (John Howard), his fiancee Phyllis (Heather Angel), his best friend Algy (Reginald Denny) and his valet Tenny (E. E. Clive) hack their way through the African foliage in search of Nielsen, Lane carries out his evil scheme by strapping the inspector to a pillar and preparing to release a ferocious, ill-fed pack of lions. Even if Nielsen should escape this peril, Lane has covered his bets by planting a time bomb in Drummond's private plane. Were it not for the fact that there were still three films to go in the "Drummond" series, one would be inclined to start worrying. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of eight 1930s films based on J. P. Marquand's Japanese detective, Thank You, Mr. Moto finds Moto (Peter Lorre) coming to the aid of Chinese royalty. The last remaining members of an ancient Chinese clan (Pauline Frederick and Philip Ahn) have in their possession six of seven scrolls, which when put together reveal the secret hiding place of Genghis Kahn's treasure. Moto has the seventh scroll, which he sneaks into Peking in hopes of contacting the family. The villains torture and kill the Chinese royals, then lure Moto to a rendezvous on a Chinese river junk. Moto is aided in thwarting the villains by the quick thinking of ingenue Jayne Regan; then, rather than risk the scrolls falling into the wrong hands and thus disgracing the Chinese family who died for their sake, Moto burns all seven parchments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Paul Muni's biographical films for Warner Bros., the Oscar-winning The Life of Emile Zola is by far the best, even allowing for the dramatic license taken with the material. When first we meet French novelist and essayist Zola, he is starving in a Parisian garret with his painter friend, Paul Cezanne. Each time Zola attempts to write "the truth," he is stymied by governmental censors. Still, he is able to achieve both fame and fortune with the publication of "Nana," an unardorned and best-selling tale of a prostitute (whom we can safely assume was not quite as likeable or attractive as Erin O'Brien-Moore, who plays the novel's "role model"). The lion's share of the film is devoted to Zola's attempts to clear the reputation of Army captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), who has been framed on a charge of treason by his superiors and condemned to Devil's Island. Publishing his famous manifesto "J'accuse," Zola leaves himself wide open for public condemnation and criminal prosecution. Though he delivers a brilliant self-defense in court, Zola is found guilty. Forced to flee to England, he continues railing against the unjust, corrupt military establishment, eventually forcing a retrial and exoneration of Dreyfus. Alas, Zola is killed in a freak accident at home before he can meet the liberated Dreyfus. At his funeral, Emile Zola is eulogized by Anatole France (Morris Carnovsky), who refers to the fallen crusader as "a moment of the conscience of man." For various reasons -- some dramatic, some legal -- the actual facts of "L'affaire Dreyfus" are altered by the Norman Reilly Raine/Heinz Herald/Geza Herczeg screenplay.

The fact that Dreyfus was railroaded because he was Jewish is obscured; in fact, except for a very brief visual reference, the word "Jew" is never mentioned. Only those villains whose names were a matter of public record (Major Dort, Major Esterhazy) are specifically identified. Others are referred to as the Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, etc. to avoid lawsuits from their descendants (remember that the events depicted in the film, most of which take place between 1894 and 1902, were still within living memory in 1937). As for Dreyfus himself, he was not freed and restored to rank in 1902, the year of Zola's death, but in 1906-after being found guilty again in an 1899 retrial (Dreyfus died in 1935, outliving everyone else involved in the case). These historical gaffes can be forgiven in the light of the film's overall message: that a single small, clear voice can fight City Hall. If for nothing else, The Life of Emile Zola deserves classic status due to Paul Muni's towering performance, most notably in the unforgettable summation scene: "By all that I have done for France, by my works -- by all that I have written, I swear to you that Dreyfus is innocent. May all that melt away -- may my name be forgotten, if Dreyfus is not innocent. He is innocent." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the land Down Under but filmed at Sunland, CA, and on Catalina Island, this low-budget action-adventure stars one of the more forgotten of the singing cowboys, baritone George Houston. Fisherman Wallaby Jim has discovered a rich pearl bed, but his constant brawling gets him in trouble with friends and foes alike. Among the latter is one Rickter (William Von Brincken), an unscrupulous competitor who will stop at nothing, including murder, to get his hands on Jim's strike. In between numerous barroom brawls, George Houston sings "Hi Ho Hum," "Moon Over the Islands," and "The Lady with the Two Left Feet," all by Felix Bernard and Irving Bibo. Low-rent producer Bud Barsky proposed a series of at least four Wallaby Jim adventures,but only Wallaby Jim on the Islands was actually made. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide